


A cold day

by alumort



Category: Dangan Ronpa 3: The End of 希望ヶ峰学園 | The End of Kibougamine Gakuen | End of Hope's Peak High School, Dangan Ronpa: Another Episode, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Brain Damage, Burns, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, I'm proud of this, comatose character, dr3 future who?, kinda vent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:01:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22074439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alumort/pseuds/alumort
Summary: A deadly raid, and her Master ended up injured.His skin, always pale, filled with bruises and scratches, worsening close to his head.Now, he was resting, and nobody knew when he would wake up.
Relationships: Fukawa Touko/Togami Byakuya
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	A cold day

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone!! This is a gift for chimeras-and-company in Tumblr, for the Togafuka gift exchange!  
> The prompt was of a deadly raid and Byakuya resulting more injured than Touko.  
> My PC broke so I can't personalize my tags, but Byakuya is in a coma. Angst ahead.

"H-how did we end up like this?"

The  _ 'hospital' _ of the Future Foundation was silent. Too silent, its patients being all quiet, even when the floor was filled with injured people and blood.

"Y-you said... you were a-alright..."

All the deaths, the despair, made just by an annoying child... Nobody would've thought that Monaca still had that many robots in her control, edifices filled with black and white bears while the Future Foundation agents were scarce.

"I... y-you are great, Master, but you're n-not  _ immortal _ ..."

Byakuya was one of the injured. He wasn't bleeding anymore, yet he was close to death. Thanks to bruises and scratches, that were darker and deeper getting closer to his head.

"M-maybe you thought that y-you were fine", Touko whispered, looking at her Master, her friend, with tears falling over the white blankets that covered his chest. "A-and... you h-had covered your neck. Why d-did you cover your neck, M-Master? If Hagakure w-wasn't with you when you p-passed out, you would've been d-dead.  _ Dead _ !"

Touko covered her mouth when she realized she was shouting, when the doctors and nurses looked at her with pity. Nobody got angry at her; all of them knew very well that the ex-heir would probably never wake up. And she knew it. The writer knew that Byakuya could die in his coma, she was preparing herself to hear the news, but it was just the night after he passed out and the pain was raw, too recent,  _ too fictional to be tru _ e. Nothing could be done, yet she cried and cried, whispering to him as if they were talking, as if he wasn't dying. It made things less painful, allowing herself to act like he was alright and awake and didn't got a brain aneurysm because of a stupid robot-

"Touko, it's late", Komaru exclaimed at her side, placing a hand in her friend's shoulder. "We have to go back. Makoto is waiting for us."

The doctors weren't the only ones that pitied Touko. Komaru's voice was sweet, soft: a careful whisper. She was thinking about her words, swiftly choosing them to try and comfort the writer. But she knew, she noticed it the same moment that Komaru opened her mouth. She didn't like it at all, she didn't need pity.

Who she needed was asleep in front of her, and wasn't going to wake up in a long, long time.

_ 'If he  _ **_ever_ ** _ does' _ , the voice of reason hissed in her head, with a thought that Touko was trying to hide. To deny the  _ obvious _ fact; she had to, or despair would consume her soul.

~

Her ex-classmates were the only ones that didn't pity her( _ at all _ ). Even if everyone knew about her crush on Byakuya, they were the only ones that didn't look at her like she was a lost puppy. They were close to her Master too, and suffered his  _ soon-to-be _ loss as she did. Maybe in a smaller proportion, but most people only saw him as a cold, skilled man. Not many people saw his honesty, his intelligence, or his-

"Fufu, are you alright? You didn't answer my question". Hiroko snapped Touko back to the present, outside of her thoughts, and the girl kept quiet. When the writer didn't say anything, she simply sighed. "I asked if you feel pain somewhere. You had pretty deep cuts and burns, it's impossible to have recovered in just three days", the woman explained, looking at Touko with calmness. 

"I-I'm  _ fine _ ", Touko replied, chewing one of her nails. Hiroko's gaze was still on her, one eye closed with suspicion, in complete silence. "... w-well, my back started to ache a-again. B-but..."

"I won't make fun of you, Fufu. The injuries can get infected if untreated, they will hurt more and more", Hiroko commented, guiding her to a patient bed. The writer frowned, doubtful, but she knew she could trust her. She didn't know why she was being so defensive against her, against everyone.

Touko's skin was filled with cloth, used as a quick bandage, and dust, dry blood decorating her torso. She wasn't sure when she would be safe enough to bathe ( _ Komaru would've insisted, if she wasn't the one patching her when they came back from the raid _ ). Her stun-gun failed in the worst moment, and she was forced to fight with her own weak arms and hands. A robot exploded behind her, and she was lucky to not obtain third-degree burns... 

"Geez, this looks bad. And Koko used the wrong bandage...", Hiroko whispered, concentrating in her task. She moved stuff from inside a first aid kit, and gently placed a gloved hand in the brunette's back. "This will hurt", she warned with a soft tone.

Cloth was almost glued to the burns, to the borders of the skin, and Touko couldn't remember something as painful as removing sticky bandages from that injury. She silently thanked Hiroko for the warning, cursing under her breath without tears falling under her chin. And she made a mental note about checking the type of bandages she was going to use to an injury, before  _ actually _ using it.

~

After her burn was properly healed, Touko was allowed to visit her Master again. An entire week away from him,  _ nothing _ compared to the time she spent in Towa City with Komaru. But in that occasion, she didn't fear for his life. Now, the writer sat at his side holding his warm hand, eyes closed and head dropping thanks to tiredness.

Kyoko was with them too, observing in silence. 

She has been quiet since the raid, answering with monosyllabic words at every question. Her serious face fooled most people, but you could tell that she was sad just by looking at her eyes. The writer used that strategy with her Master too. He appeared to be cold, but he wasn't. Deep enough, the Killing game survivors had a place in his heart... Touko's being the most important for him, showing it with his caring words and the mails they shared. Or, that’s what she wanted to believe.

Her Master’s hand felt warm, and his fingers moved. She opened her eyes, with a grin now decorating her face. Kyoko showed a tiny smile, and a nurse entered the room. They had to leave, thanks to some privacy policies that no one was in the mood to break.

When both girls were in the hospital hallway, Touko started to talk with excitement, clasping her hands over her chest.

"H-he moved", she quickly explained to her friend, who just stared at her. "H-he's going to wake up!"

"Probably", Kyoko replied, the longest word she pronounced in a week.

"He'll w-wake up", the writer whispered to herself, holding to that hope that shined brightly under her skin.

It darkened later that day, when the nurse told them that Byakuya almost died again. That he was safe now, but he couldn't breathe alone anymore and had to use an oxygen mask.

~

Touko couldn't dodge the fact that the raid wasn't successful. That any healthy agent had to keep fighting, and only ten members of each branch could stay in the base. She was an intern, and they took advantage of that, sending her to finish the raids alongside Komaru and countless of unknown people. At least her back didn't hurt anymore...

Now, her heart was in her throat, beating quickly as she gasped for air.  _ Syo _ had been in control for... how many hours? Had she switched with her stun-gun, or passed out? Touko couldn't tell. The sky was always red, and the sun didn't light the cities anymore. Having to use a watch to know the time instead of just looking up was something  _ awful _ , something that the girl still had to start doing.

She was alone in the unknown, pink staining her body. As if she was injured, even if she felt no pain. Had the genocider killed someone else? Her Master would be so  _ disappointed _ of her...

"Touko! You're awake!", a distant voice exclaimed, as if its owner was behind a window. When the writer scanned the room, she found Komaru smiling. Relaxed, as if she had something heavy in her shoulders and could finally drop it to the ground.

"K-Komaru...?". Touko could feel the soreness in her throat, the pain, the screams that her alter should've done to let their body in this state. "W-what happened?"

Her senses were waking up with her, and her alter's feelings were still hidden in her chest. Disgust, hate, fear... Syo probably discovered what happened to her Master. But why did she felt the need to kill, after almost two years?

"We won", Komaru whispered, looking at someone at her side. "Syo helped us in the raid, but..."

The disgust faded from her mind, and was quickly replaced with dizziness. Blood was everywhere;  _ in the ground, her clothes, her hands _ … Her mouth felt weird, dry, and her stomach growled.

"She killed Tengan. And, uh, tried to starve herself when... we tried giving her medicine”. The mysterious person accompanying her friend let themselves be seen; a girl with pale grey hair, with a mask hiding her mouth. “Munakata thinks that she has to go, since we finally defeated Monaca.”

"W-well... what are you waiting f-for? I'm here n-now, give me the medicine", Touko hissed, coming close to the dense window that separated the three girls. 

"... don't you want to know why Syo killed our  _ leader _ ?". The stranger-  _ Kimura, was it? _ \- seemed dubious. She wasn't staring at Touko, neither was Komaru.

"I d-don't care", the brunette admitted, crossing her arms over her chest. Kimura sighed, giving a small nod, and a hidden door was opened close to the window. 

Touko entered to the other room, noticing clean clothes and curry over a table and sat there, eating the food with excitement. She wasn't interrupted. When she finished her  _ (long-desired?) _ meal, Komaru placed a hand on her shoulder, and talked.

"Tengan said that keeping Togami alive was a waste of resources", her friend explained, dodging her gaze. "He gave the orders in front of Syo, after the raid was won."

"... He  _ d-deserved _ it", Touko muttered with a frown, and Kimura gave her a purple pill. She inspected it; it was big, almost rectangular, and she didn't know if she could just take it or not.

After some seconds, she remembered Kimura's talent:  _ (Former) _ Ultimate Pharmacist. The girl made remedies and vitamins, discovering properties of already known substances that made her win her title. She was safe... probably.

"If you don't swallow it, Munakata won't let you see Togami", Kimura admitted, looking at her eyes. She was calm, her voice steady, and Touko was convinced mostly by her statement. Kimura later explained that she would've to take the medicine every day, but it wasn't a problem for her.

~

The world became a quieter place in just two years. No more raids, no more robots... the sky became blue again, and flowers bloomed everywhere you could look. There wasn't as many people as before, and the streets felt...  _ empty _ . Even if Touko detested crowds, it was weird that they simply disappeared from existence, abandoning entire cities in mere days.

_ 'That's the only good thing of all of this' _ , the writer thought in her seat, playing with her hair while the bus was in a stop.

She was in her way to the hospital. Byakuya was still asleep, barely reacting to anyone's presence. The nurses said that he should be waking up soon, as the pollution was almost gone and it was healthy to breathe again. That he was alright.

And so, Touko visited her friend every week. Komaru or the other survivors sometimes went with her, but not this time. She had to say goodbye to him.

Writing wasn't a valuable skill in a post-apocalyptic world. Towa City was the less... affected by  _ The Tragedy _ , and they wanted to post her new writings. Being in the new Kibougamine school wasn't bad, but working of something she loved was better. Plus, they would pay well. 

The decision was already made. Touko wasn't going to change her mind; the papers had been filled, even if she wasn't going to go until New Year had passed.

That's what she had planned to say to him, her sleeping beauty. 

He was completely still, his golden mane reaching his ribs now; Aloysius said that Byakuya could like it that way, that he did in the past, and didn't let anyone cut his hair.

Touko grabbed his hand, feeling the warmth of his skin as a contrast to the coldness of the start of Winter. She smiled softly, closing her eyes to rest at his side.

"It's _ a cold d-day,  _ isn't it _? _ ", the girl whispered, saving her glasses inside a pocket in her shirt. "Not cold enough for s-snow, but it's still annoying."

As expected, she got no response. Byakuya didn't move this time, didn't grab her hand like he did in the past. Touko sighed, gently brushing his hair with her fingers.

"I won't be here after D-December, Byakuya", she added, looking at the floor under her feet. "Komaru wants to come w-with me, I won't be alone. Towa City is the o-only place that needs a writer right  _ now _ ..."

After another sigh, the girl left a gentle kiss on his wrist. She didn't cry, not this time. Practicing this hurt, but now... a weight was gone, something that made her shoulders ache but not anymore. She felt free,  _ safe _ , for the first time in years.

"S-so... search me if you wake up. I will wait", Touko said, smiling again. She finally looked at his calm face, noticing a soft movement in his eyelids. 

A reflex, probably; he didn't open his eyes the last time he did that, he wasn't going to do it now. With this in mind, she turned to leave the room, not looking back. She wouldn't go if she saw his face one more time, stuck at his side until something happened.

Something, anything... for better or worse.

"Miss Fukawa, where are you going?", Aloysius ( _ her friend's butler, who was allowed to stay with Byakuya as he was closer with him than anyone else _ ) wondered, having been waiting outside the room. In the Future Foundation there could be more than one visitor at a time, but not in a regular hospital. 

"I can't w-wait anymore... He'll probably won't  _ w-wake _ up, Aloysius, and I have a n-new job", Touko answered, playing with her only braid. "I have to prepare e-everything for New Year..."

"Are you sure about that?". The man offered her a biscuit from a paper bag, sitting in one of the chairs of the hallways. Chatter came from other rooms, making the girl feel calmer. "Won't you feel lonely?"

Touko knew what he tried to do. She sat at his side anyways, grabbing the food he offered with a sigh. Aoi wasn't the only one trying to convince her to stay, he was doing that too and the writer didn't know why.

"K-Komaru will come with me", she explained, taking a bit from the biscuit. It tasted good, with chocolate chips and a soft vanilla flavor. "I won't be alone."

"... Excuse me for interrogating you, Miss Fukawa. It is just... you and I are the only regular visitors that my young Master has", Aloysius admitted, giving the girl a polite smile. "I know that he can seem harsh, or cold; a lack of visitors confirms that. So I gained curiosity about you."

"Are we r-really the only ones that come here?". Touko played with her fingers, a frown appearing in her face. The chatter from the other rooms had reduced to mere whispers and the occasional groans, and nurses took care of each patient that was in there. "I'll h-have a talk with my  _ classmates _ before I go away..."

"No, they  _ do _ come. I was trying to say that we are the only ones that come every week, that make a space for him in our routines", the man corrected, negating with his head. "Do not be angry at them, Miss Fukawa. It was my bad, as I had not expressed my thoughts as I should have."

"O-oh... it's alright, Aloysius", the girl said, finishing her biscuit and smiling to him. "It was d-delicious, thank you."

"My pleasure", he answered, imitating her gesture. Someone moved behind them, and before they could say anything else, a nurse came out of a room( _ his _ ), with wide eyes and sweat in her face. She recognized Touko, and stood in front of her as quick as possible, and the writer feared. Byakuya was dead, even if no alarm beeped from the monitors and machines that kept him healthy.

"You-", the nurse interrupted herself, now noticing Aloysius. She sighed before continuing. "He wants to see you two."

"He's a-awake", Touko exclaimed, her eyes barely holding tears that she forced herself to hide. "A-Aloysius, y-you were right, he w-woke up!"

Her companion just smiled, and the two were allowed to see her friend again, conscious after so long; Byakuya was laying in his bed, his pale blue gaze resting first in his butler, and then in Touko. She cleaned her tears, aware of how disgusting she looked with them, and Aloysius hugged him. He blinked, moving his arms at a slow pace to return the hug.

"What happened?", were his first words in a while, said with a deep yet shaky tone, revealing the lack of use of his voice. Touko got closer to him, and the boy blinked again. "You said you had to go", he remarked, squinting where she stood.

"Y-you w-woke up, and- and you r-remember... what I s-said", the girl replied, making a grin to him even if he couldn't see her well.

He smiled back and grabbed her hand, for the first time with both conscience and joy.

~

One good thing about living in a world that was recovering from despair, was the care that everyone gave to plants. Even in Winter, trees were strong and were in every corner.

The hospital had a small park, leaves from evergreens and snow mixed in its ground as the year was coming to an end. Nobody was out, coldness winning against the excitement of seeing the huge garden of the place.

Touko was a person that hated cold. She got sick thanks to it, and the feeling was horrible... but Byakuya had to exercise, recover mobility or something, and she just couldn't say no to something so important regarding his health.

They were walking in silence, following a pebble road. Bare trunks were at each side of the path, looking a bit odd without their typical green tones.

"Have I been asleep for this long?", Byakuya whispered to himself once they reached a bench, grabbing his friend's arm to sit in a comfortable way. "It was  _ April _ when we first raided Monaca."

"Y-you were in a coma, Byakuya", Touko gently reminded him, sitting at his side. "F-for... two years, almost three."

"... It still is an unbelievable thing", he admitted, unknotting his hair with his fingers. He didn't want to cut it( _ and he honestly looked better with long hair, in Touko's opinion _ ). "The air is breathable. No acid falls from the sky when there is a storm... and all was solved so  _ quickly _ ."

"Y-yeah, it's weird at first", the writer agreed, her head resting in Byakuya's shoulder. He just stared at her, no complains leaving his mouth. "But it's a-alright, we finally d-defeated Monaca, and everyone is working h-hard to not ruin the world again."

"Defeat? What is this, a  _ video game _ ?", he asked in an irritated tone, crossing his arms over his chest. "I doubt she was killed so easily, as she has been a pest like Enoshima was."

"S-she  _ did _ live in the space for two months."

"See? A  _ pest _ , adapted to live in any environment", Byakuya finished, smirking as he relaxed again. Touko searched for his blue gaze, and was quickly drowned in the two puddles of his eyes. Byakuya separated her head from his shoulder as he stood up, looking at the ground instead of her face; he also stopped unknotting his hair.

His body was warm, warmer than what was expected in a snowy day, and Touko just wanted to hug him, to feel that sensation again...

"It is getting late. Let's go back."

He was dubious about something, yet the girl knew that he wouldn't say a word about it. Too many worries, and he could get ill again...

"A-alright", she replied, extending her hand to him. Byakuya hold it, and Touko could've swear she saw a reddish tone in his cheeks.

Touko smiled to herself and, damn, the work in Towa City wasn't worthy of not being at his side.  _ Writing was an escape from the rain, and her Sun had returned brighter than when the clouds covered it. _

_ He was still processing everything, but a new softness was there, formed by the memories of tears and kisses in the hands, of whispers about casual things and books. _

_ Both of them were happy how they were, in their own unique way, that they still had to decipher themselves. _

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you guys liked it!  
> My social sites, if you want to say hi you're more than welcome :D  
> Tumblr- alumort  
> Twitter- PurpleRick2


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